Telling Ray
by AEM1
Summary: Lieutenant Welsh fills in Kowalski before he takes over as Ray Vecchio on the details of Vecchio's life, namely Vecchio's eccentric Mountie partner. Oneshot.


A/N: Hello all! I think I should warn you all that this is my first venture into _due_ South fanfiction. There are many TV shows I'm stupidly obsessed with and this is one of them. I've been watching due South on and off for the last 7 years or so ever since it was in syndication on TNT back in the day, I recorded it religiously and now my obsession's back ever since a friend of mine told me it was out on DVD at Best Buy and I found season 2. I came up with a few one-shot ideas and my brain won't let me focus on anything else till I get em out so, here goes! Hope you like! Review please!

Disclaimer: If I owned _due_ South, it wouldn't have died at all, never mind twice before it was actually cancelled (fun with playing on _due_ South fan sites. I have no life, it's sad really)

Kinda AU….For all the nitpickers out there yeah I know Welsh didn't tell Fraser about Ray till the end, but we can just pretend that the episode can happen from there, right? Haha.

District27-Chicago PD

Lieutenant Welsh looked up as the door to his office opened without any sort of announcement, anyone knocking. There was only one of his staff that ever did that and he…well, let's just say he wouldn't be here to do it for a while.

The man that entered was a tall, young man with crazy, spiky blonde hair and deep set blue-grey eyes. He wore a simple, common pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt. The only thing that differentiated this man from any other was the gun holster he wore around his back.

"Lieutenant Welsh?" the man stuck out his hand for Welsh to shake. He had a slight accent that could have turned into a lazy drawl, but instead, he sounded rapt with attention and professional. "Detective Ray Kowalski"

"Ahh, Detective Kowalski" Welsh accepted the young detective's hand "or should we be saying Detective Vecchio?"

"I suppose so, sir" Detective Kowalski answered

"I hope you understand the full meaning of being undercover as another cop, Detective. If your cover is blown and the mob puts two and two together, that could lead to pretty significant trouble for the real Detective Vecchio. Vecchio can be a bit of a loose cannon, but he's generally a good guy and he's a good cop, he's got a hell of a lot of honesty and loyalty buried under all that Italian bravado of his so I don't want to see that happen, understand me, Detective?"

"Perfectly, sir. And they'll be no problem. My folks spend most of their time traveling the US in a motor home, and I haven't talked to my brother in about 3 years"

"You married, Detective?"

"Divorced. Couple of months ago. That's why I took this actually, I'm not tied down to anything and it's kind of a change of scenery for me"

"Good. I don't mean to sound rude or anything, Kowalski, I just don't want to see anything happen to Vecchio unnecessarily"

"Understandable. I heard District 27's a pretty tight unit"

"Yeah. On occasion. So you read Vecchio's file, I assume"

"Yes I did sir"

"Any questions?"

"Yeah actually I've got one. Vecchio's partner is a Mountie?" Kowalski looked somewhat confused.

The look plus the question itself made Welsh smile, a look not common with the gruff Lieutenant. "Yeah. Figured you'd have some questions on that. Constable Benton Fraser. He's a good guy, your typical Canadian, polite, somewhat naïve, apologizes for everything, even when he wasn't the one that did it. Above all he's an excellent officer. He came in here first about two years ago, looking for the cop who was investigating the murder of his father, he'll tell you the story even if you don't ask. Haven't been able to get rid of him since"

"How'd he and Vecchio get to be partners?"

"Well, strictly speaking, they're not. Fraser works unofficially here, but Vecchio wouldn't even hear of getting an official partner. If you even so much as mentioned it, he'd immediately give you the dirtiest look possible and insist he already had one. I suppose I could have made him take a partner, but I just never wanted to. He and Fraser worked well together, they had the whole good cop-bad cop thing going or something. No idea what they have, but whatever it was, it worked. They were like a well-oiled machine, responsible for solving more cases than the rest of my detective unit combined. Vecchio was the cop in charge of the case of the murder of Fraser's father. That was actually the first case Vecchio closed in about six months. After that, they became inseparable. You very rarely saw one without the other. I swear, Fraser's here more than he's at the Canadian Consulate. In work, out of work, they're almost always together. They're complete polar opposites, but I think that's why they get along so well. They're the best of friends, so when Fraser finds out Vecchio's gone…"

"He'll be pissed?"

"Nah, in all the time I've known Constable Fraser, I've never seen him get really and truly angry over anything. He won't complain or anything and he'll be perfectly polite to you, he'll just start trying to prove you're not Ray Vecchio in strange Mountie-ish ways that only make sense to him while everyone around him is claiming you are, so you'd better let me talk to him before you jump in to being Ray Vecchio."

"You got it, Lieutenant. So, wait, Vecchio doesn't even tell his best friend he's leaving?"

Lieutenant Welsh smirked "Well, that's a bit of a story. Couple of weeks ago, Constable Fraser got into a bit of an accident. He was chasing a suspect driving a van and he fell off the roof"

"And why was he on the roof to begin with?"

Welsh laughed at Kowalski's confused and shocked look "Fraser's very…ah, how should I put this…dedicated to his work. That's putting it very mildly actually. Like I said before, he's your typical Canadian and your typical Mountie. He goes out of his way to bring criminals to justice, even if it involves jumping on cars, jumping across buildings, getting himself arrested, institutionalized, the list goes on, but I think that's what makes him a good cop. Anyway, Fraser's riding on top of this van, trying to get the perps to stop. They make a sharp turn, Fraser falls off and loses his memory for a few days. He went on leave to Canada to recuperate. I think he'll be back in a day or two. Anyway, he was there when we get the call about Langustini, Vecchio called him but he couldn't get into detail on the phone, so Fraser's gonna be pretty devastated when he finds out."

At that point, someone knocked on the door and came in a minute later after Welsh told them to enter. A pretty African-American woman entered. She casually glanced at Kowalski before turning to Welsh "You told me to tell you when Fraser got back" she said without prelude.

"Fraser's back? Oh good." The sarcasam was obvious in Welsh's voice. "By the way, Elaine, this is Detective Kowalski, he'll be…ah, filling in for Detective Vecchio. Elaine Besbriss is our Civilian Aide"

Elaine scrutinized Kowalski coolly "Hi"

"Hi, nice meeting you"

"You too. Lieutenant, if you want to do this, you have to do it now. Fraser's looking for Ray"

Welsh sighed and looked up at the ceiling, mentally cursing Ray Vecchio for leaving him this job, even though the Lieutenant was well aware it couldn't have been avoided. "Course he is. All right, Elaine, find Fraser, tell him I want to talk to him. Don't let him start making excuses about finding Vecchio first, tell him it's of the utmost importance, he won't be able to say no to that. Kowalski, just make yourself scarce for a little while. Don't let Fraser see you"

"You got it, Lieutenant" Kowalski said as Elaine nodded her agreement to her task.

"One thing though, knock off the 'Lieutenant's. Vecchio hardly calls me 'Lieutenant"

"Yes sir" Kowalski agreed. He and Elaine left together. Kowalski immediately faded off into the background as Elaine wandered back to her desk. Suddenly, Fraser appeared in the bullpen, his keen Mountie eyes searching for his best friend, but instead, being suddenly intercepted by Jack Huey. Desperately praying that Huey didn't spill anything about Vecchio, Welsh was relieved to see Elaine immediately appear at Fraser's side and start talking to Fraser. Fraser nodded once and began walking towards the Lieutenant's office, leaving Elaine and Huey behind.

Welsh took a deep breath _'Well,'_ he thought to himself _'Here goes nothing'_


End file.
